Book Review: Skin by Donna Jo Napoli

Title: Skin

Author: Donna Jo Napoli

Pages: 352

Publisher: Amazon Children’s Publishing

Publication Date: August 6^th, 2013

Source: Netgalley

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Rating: 2.5/5

Giuseppina, otherwise known as Sep, always thought of herself as average. And on the first day of her junior year, she’s ready to start off another boring school year. Except for one small detail: her lips are white. Not pale, or faded. Plain white. With no clue of what’s going on, Sep’s got to find out the problem with her skin – and fix it - before somebody finds out. This young heroine has to figure out where she stands in life – no matter what she looks like.

But to Sep’s dismay, she has vitiligo, a condition where the cells in your skin lose their color. And it has no cure. Knowing that she does not have long before somebody finds out, Sep’s got to live her life to the fullest, before it all changes.

I really liked the idea of this story. It was clear, explained, and somewhat interesting. The emotions the author was trying to explain were easy to understand; the sadness, conflict and happiness. It was a nice break from all the dystopian books about the future, and was fun to just read about the present. This book wasn’t too long, or too short, and the pages seemed to whizz by.

But to me, the introduction was a slow and hesitant, and from there on, it just steadily got worse. Adding to that, I felt that this book wasn’t very captivating. Sure it was fun to read some parts, but I found myself skimming over others when I felt there wasn’t much value of reading them.

My biggest problem with this book was that I couldn’t really connect with it. I understand that Sep was going through this huge change in life, and that she didn’t understand what was going to happen to her, but I just don’t agree with the way she reacted. In the beginning of the book, before she figured out she had vitiligo, it was easy to understand what she was going through. But, once she realized what the condition was, it completely shaped who she was – into a person that I can’t say I liked or connected with.

Overall I would say ‘Skin’ by Donna Jo Napoli is a less than average book. I don’t reread all books I read. The ones I do are usually great, and I know for a fact that I won’t be rereading this one.